@Luke - small world note, I actually played soccer with your sister and met you at her going away party, you may not really remember, you were having a pretty damn good time by time I got there. Your 3 months on a husky RR was pretty entertaining.

@Luke - small world note, I actually played soccer with your sister and met you at her going away party, you may not really remember, you were having a pretty damn good time by time I got there. Your 3 months on a husky RR was pretty entertaining.

Yeah, I know. That's is so crazy. It's such a small world. Your story is the 4th one I have heard like that. Congrats on getting to meet my sister. She is really awesome!!!

We have been in South Africa for 11 days now and aside from the quick road trip to the Elephant reserve, we have stayed at the Cat and Moose Backpakers. It feels like we have the best housemates you could ask for. We have become a big family. The last two days especially. As nick wrote up 5 us when Shark Diving and then the next day we rented two cars and drove down to the Cape of Good hope. Here are some pictures of us hanging out and living together.

We all rented two cars for the day and drove down to the Cape of Good Hope. It was about an hours drive down there. We stopped to eat some breakfast along the way. Nick and I are Americans so we already had cheeseburgers for breakfast earlier so we didn't get anything to eat. Instead I found a hacky sack to buy at a store and we played out in the parking lot. I wonder how much of my life I have spent hanging out in parking lots? I am sure it is more than what is recommended.

Daniel is a soldier and is not afraid of anything. Good guy to have around.

Once we entered the park we immediately saw Ostriches and ran out to meet them. (Leave the car game will now be refered to as: LTCG)

Nick is obsessed with the hacky sack.

After the bird watching Car 1 decides we are not allowed to stop until the Cape because we all get so distracted and take forever to get back in the cars. I think this is funny because it reminds me so much of my friends back home. Hanging out in parking lots and taking forever to do anything. We get to the Cape and do the tourist thing for as long as we can stand it. Every one has their own way to be touristy.

Nick and katie like to pose.

Roberto likes to film everything. I don't know how many times I said hello to brazil on that camera.

Daniel takes his quacking duck everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. He's been doing this for 5 years.

Charlette is a sign climber

I am just happy with my shirt off and lots of sun

A few people had to get back to the backpaker early so we shuffled some people in the cars and one car took off while the other stayed behind for a bit. I moved into car 2 with nick and we rocked out to some KeSha on the way home. We came across some baboons and everyone is car 2 was down to play LTCG.

Dance party screen shot

Baboons

We got a little too close and the Angry mom showed her teeth. Roberto hit the gas and I rolled up the window.

good bye baboons

The night before this we all went out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant. It was very very expensive. 213 Rand per person so about $33 USD. In comparison our backpacker is 100 Rand per night. I would not trade that night for the world though. I laughed so hard when we convinced the employees there to put on an Ethiopian style dance for us. I am pretty sure that is not a normal occurance at this place. We went around in a circle. Each country showing countrys style of dancing. Roberto and Katie are from Brazil and killed it. They met 5 years ago during a dance class and continue to dance together on a regular basis. It was pretty easy for Nick and I to show how American guys dance. Hands in pockets looking cool. Then Nick showed some country line dancing stuff. Somalian dancing is mainly shaking your bootie. We never did get to see Charlotte's Uganda style or Daniel's German stuff. The Ethiopian dance is so funny looking. Imagine if a bird with broken wings were to dance. The dance is all in your head and neck and chest. Not much in the legs and nothing in the arms. The arms are just frozen by your side with your elbows bent with your hands resting near your waist. You puff your chest in and out like a lizard and pop your neck like a chicken.

It was really dark inside so I do not have so many pictures of the night because they are mostly blury

Not that this part is import, but I just want to remember this and read this when I am old. I only have one shirt at this point and it was smelling really bad, so earlier when I took a shower I washed my shirt at the same time. I hung it up to dry and the just wore my hoodie to the restaurant. The restaurant is on the 3rd story and it got hotter with every level. I decided to run back and grab my wet t shirt because I was sweating so much in the warm hoodie. I also grabbed my camera because no one had one. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's a good thing I only have one shirt otherwise there would have been no photos at all.

They do this to everyone, not just the stinky Americans

We had two plates full like this. You eat the food by tearing off bread from what looks similar to a roll of toilet paper, then grabbing the sauce/meat mixture with your bread. I know we had beef, pork, chicken, and shrimp, I do not know what the rest was. Probably vegetarian things.

These people work here and showed us an authentic Ethiopian dance. The employees turned up the music for us and come out for a big circle dance to end the night.

Ahhh........We really don't have much to update. The sad story is, the bikes are still being delayed. A few days ago we took a bus to the airport fully expecting to have posession of the bikes. Well, it didn't happen. The good news is the bikes ARE at the Cape Town airport. According to Paul (our new Cape Town contact). The bikes were in Joburg since December 28th, but the paperwork was lost. They found the paper work and the bikes were delevered to the Cape Town Airport Saturday January 22nd. Of course that was the weekend so we had to wait a few days until monday to get anything done. There are three problems with why the bikes are not being cleared through customs.

One of the problems is my bill of sale. It is a hand written note and signed by the seller. It is not officical looking, so they are worried that it could be fake. They need the bill of sale because they want to know how much the bikes are worth so they can tax us accordingly. Nick of course does not have this problem because he bought his bike directly from a dealer and there is a very thick paper trail documenting that.

The second problem is that the paperwork lists only one bike with parts inside instead of two bikes with no parts. This probably happened because we put both bikes inside one crate. So before our bikes can be released they need to change the paperwork so two bikes get released instead of one bike and parts. This needs to be straightened out otherwise we will have a huge problem at the boarder when trying to cross on obviously two bikes verses one bike and spare parts.

The third problem I can not even remember right now.

In the mean time we are profesional internet woreloards. I think I spend more money on Internet than this hostel. Besides Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Bmxboard, Advrider, Macrumors and Amazon, this is what we have done with our time...

Eat, beach, eat, sunburn, eat, soccer, eat, pool, repeat

Ok, I'm going to talk you through a typical Day... First you wake up and find somthing cheap to eat with your friends.

$3-4

Then you walk down to Strand Street and find a Mini Bus to take you to the beach $1

The buses are usually not very crowded, but they can be like they were this day.

Next you make more friends so you can play soccer with them and talk to the girls

Then layout for some sun

Then you get sunburned

By now the day is fading and you make your way back to your neighborhood to look for dinner.

I love Sushi, but Nick doesn't. Too expensive for just a regular night anyway, we move on.

We end up at Bob's for some lamb kebob's humas and pita bread with lettuce and salsa garnish. Very Very good $5

After two and half weeks of travelers telling us we need to climb Lions Head we finally caved. We took off to catch the sunset by the time we reached the top. After a hard day of sitting in the pool of course.

Lions Head is pinnacle that overlooks Cape Town, Which you can see far in the background in this photo.

It's about a 45 minute hike to the top, which is real fun in slippery sandals.

After staying at the same hostel for over 3 weeks we are always making new friends then saying good by a few days later. This is our new crew.

Anytime you find the possility of a cave you have to investigate. It's a rule.

The best part about Lions Head is they don't have the American mentality of fences, stairs, or safety. Which I love.

We reached the Top just in time for the Sunset. And the view was amazing.

After the pictures we took of us looking awesome, which is hard to do without laughing, we decided it was time to have some fun. Luke decided to get 20 push-ups ahead of me in the push-up game. Apparently luke is such a beast he needed some extra weight, so I helped out.

And variations of handstands are always fun, especially in unusual places.

Somewhere down there is our hostel with the swimming pool to cool down in after this hike.

We decided to stay until it was dark. It makes the dangerous hike next to cliffs more fun

After two and half weeks of travelers telling us we need to climb Lions Head we finally caved. We took off to catch the sunset by the time we reached the top. After a hard day of sitting in the pool of course.

Lions Head is pinnacle that overlooks Cape Town, Which you can see far in the background in this photo.

It's about a 45 minute hike to the top, which is real fun in slippery sandals.

After staying at the same hostel for over 3 weeks we are always making new friends then saying good by a few days later. This is our new crew.

Anytime you find the possility of a cave you have to investigate. It's a rule.

The best part about Lions Head is they don't have the American mentality of fences, stairs, or safety. Which I love.

We reached the Top just in time for the Sunset. And the view was amazing.

After the pictures we took of us looking awesome, which is hard to do without laughing, we decided it was time to have some fun. Luke decided to get 20 push-ups ahead of me in the push-up game. Apparently luke is such a beast he needed some extra weight, so I helped out.

And variations of handstands are always fun, especially in unusual places.

Somewhere down there is our hostel with the swimming pool to cool down in after this hike.

We decided to stay until it was dark. It makes the dangerous hike next to cliffs more fun

So Jealous of you guys. It is just above freeing here in the northern hemi sphere and I watched the same sun go down about 4 hours ago. I can't wait for your motorcycle trip !! to start and your trip north thru Africa. I have never ridden there but I can assure you that Norway is an amazing treat for you as you end to the journey. Just don't think how much expensive it is there, it is worth it

Life doesn't suck right now because we are in Africa on holiday, BUT...... my bike is broken. I can not figure out the problem for the life of me. I worked on it the last two days saturday and sunday. This morning (monday) I went to the Cape Town KTM dealer to talk to them about it. They don't have room for me today, but will look at the bike tomorrow (tuesday)

I'm glad you guys FINALLY got your rides but stink on the whole broke-down issue. Any clues yet as to what the problem is?

Duuuuude though, you guys look like WICKED fun!!! Hopefully the bike portion of this RR will happen soon (never had a KTM but have read enough to sympathize).

Right now, everything points to a bad fuel pump. We are going to tow the bike to the KTM dealer tomorrow morning. The fastest they can get a pump sounds like 8 days. I have a 2008 KTM 690 and according to the internet, they are notorious for having horrible fuel systems and bad pumps!!